Arizona cities are dropping their so-called “photo enforcement” traffic cameras in a flurry in 2011.

The latest is Peoria, where camera intersections such as 83rd Ave and Thunderbird (above picture) saw tremendous increases in accidents. City officials are now claiming that overall there was a 29% increase over the three year life span of the program, but much larger increases (300-500%) were recorded initially.

Do you remember when you wondered why math was important in school? As it turns out, without the most basic math skills, you might end up working for companies like Redflex or American Traffic Solutions.

Earlier this week, we saw how terrible Redflex is at calculating the worth of their company, but what about American Traffic Solutions?

News from Texas and Missouri this week proves that they may be greatly hindered in basic calculations.

Earlier this week, news came out that Redflex and Las Cruces, NM PD will begin stealing cars as ransom for red light camera fines. The excuse they’re using is that there are too many unpaid tickets and now they’re losing money.

"Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master." George Washington

OPINION – You own a car. One evening, while enjoying your private property, a series of sensors and cameras detect your movement and computationally decide that you are exceeding the speed limit. A for-profit corporation receives high-resolution images of the alleged “violation,” which then forwards the allegations to another series of for-profit corporations.

Municipal corporations have a budget and, lets face it, payroll is a bitch for any corporation. Instead of a co-op where residents are viewed as equal shareholders in their community, they are instead viewed as revenue machines ready for milking. The true shareholders in these muni corporations are the usual suspects: investment banks like Goldman Sachs (which also owns American Traffic Solutions and Geico) and Macquarie which just gobbled up Redflex.

Yes, big banks, the photo firms, and Anytown U.S.A. have a lot of things in common: They care about money, power, and control.

Lets not forget that a “traffic ticket” in any form goes well beyond the scope of a tax. It is a lawsuit directed at you on behalf of a carefully-vested collective of public and private entities that survive only on their ability to take by force the property of others. This collective includes the very elected officials that are supposed to represent the people and protect their private property: city and town judges, the town prosecutor, police officers etc.

In grade school, this is called stealing. In muni law, it’s considered “revenue enhancement” and your immediate, unquestioning compliance is not requested but demanded. The endgame to this bastardization of law is obvious: corpgov sanctioned theft:

If you’ve got one of the 15,000 traffic camera tickets the city says remain unpaid, you might want to keep an eye on your car. Police will begin seizing or putting boots on vehicles whose owners have unpaid tickets from the five Redflex Traffic Systems cameras around town, the Las Cruces Police Department announced Tuesday. LCPD Police Chief Richard Williams wasn’t available to comment on the new enforcement action, but LCPD spokesman Dan Trujillo pointed out that nothing about the ordinance itself was new.

“Fighting” photo enforcement by trying to change out the politicians who allowed it to happen is like voting for a new board of directors at McDonalds because of a lousy drive-thru cheeseburger. A better solution is to immediately stop patronizing the corporations (City of Scottsdale, City of Mesa, City of Phoenix) and their hired thugs (corrupt police officers, judges, prosecutors).

In Arizona, the advice used to be “careful driving down to Mexico, the corrupt police there will seize your car on a whim.”

In 2011, we can revise the sentiment: “careful driving across town, the corrupt police will seize your car at the command of a private corporation.

There was plenty of good news last week in the world of cameras coming down or cameras staying away.

Bullhead City, AZ had been debating the horrible idea of introducing dangerous red light cameras into their intersections. The mayor Jack Hakim, spent two years pushing for the marriage between his city and Redflex Traffic Systems. After calls and emails by citizens of Bullhead who refused to fall victim to this scam, Hakim was forced to back off his love for money over safety. When it was all said and done, the mayor conceded after the city council voted 7-0 in favor of nixing the proposed contract. Quoting the mayor,

The final vote count was 18-12. Two R’s, Michele Reagan and Adam Driggs along with one D, Kyrsten Sinema switched from their No vote on SB 1352 to a Yes vote on SCR 1029, which has the same language.

It is not yet known how things will play out in the AZ House, but a decision on that floor is expected next week or the following.

If this vote to bring down the scameras all across Arizona is approved by the House, it will skip over Governor Jan Brewer’s desk and go straight to a citizens vote. The rule is that the Governor has no say on SCRs. However, let’s not get ahead of ourselves

It is of utmost importance to begin contacting AZ House reps today!

They must know, just as the Senate members found out from hundreds of your emails, that the citizens of Arizona want ALL the cameras to come down and deserve to vote on it.

Below is a roster and contact info for each. Please make it a priority to send them your thoughts about photo ticketing, even if it’s just a sentence or two. Give them a story, anecdote or data you’ve seen that shows the cameras cause erratic driving and more collisions. The more personal, the better.